When I ask myself why I study Spanish I always give myself the same answer.
Becuase I like it.
I really enjoy studying Spanish.
Even though I have been studying Spanish for a number of years now, the only thing that I can really say about that is that I am studying Spanish.
I refuse to even say one word of Spanish.
I never write one sentence of Spanish on a piece of paper.
However, I can read Spanish subtitles in movies to some degree.
~~~
I invested in the Rosetta Stone program for the computer.
I love Rosetta Stone. For me it is not only educational but great fun.
I have numerous Spanish dictionaries, workbooks, etc.
I have a copy of people magazine in Spanish.
Whenever I see those laminated Sparks study sheets or other kinds of charts I buy them.
I have a Spanish Bible.
I could open a small bookstore and turn a good profit if I wanted to sell my Spanish stuff.
~~~
When I ask myself why I study Spanish I always give myself the same answer.
Becuase I like it.
I really enjoy studying Spanish.
and I read once that studying a language is good for the mind.
So I don't mind doing something that is good for the mind.
Sure, I may never be able to communicate with Spanish-speaking servers in a certain Indianapolis restaurant as I had once hoped I would be able to or I may never be able to run for president of Mexico - not that I have ever wanted to - but I like studying Spanish.
It's kinda like what Chis Gardner said in the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. That he had begun to see that when Thomas Jefferson referred to 'the pursuit of happiness' in the Declaration of Independence, he meant that we most likely will never catch that elusive butterfly of happiness - but rather life is about pursuing happiness.
And that's what studying Spanish means to me. I will never speak or write Spanish - although I can read it to some degree - but I will always enjoy and get great satisfaction out of studying it.
7 comments:
Beauty
Was never form and never face
So sweet to SEYD as only grace
Which did not slumber like a stone,
But hovered gleaming and was gone.
Beauty chased he everywhere,
In flame, in storm, in clouds of air.
He smote the lake to feed his eye
With the beryl beam of the broken wave;
He flung in pebbles well to hear
The moment's music which they gave.
Oft pealed for him a lofty tone
From nodding pole and belting zone.
He heard a voice none else could hear
From centred and from errant sphere.
The quaking earth did quake in rhyme,
Seas ebbed and flowed in epic chime.
In dens of passion, and pits of woe,
He saw strong Eros struggling through,
To sun the dark and solve the curse,
And beam to the bounds of the universe.
While thus to love he gave his days
In loyal worship, scorning praise,
How spread their lures for him in vain
Thieving Ambition and paltering Gain!
He thought it happier to be dead,
To die for Beauty, than live for bread.
RW Emerson, "On the Conduct of Life"
Ticker - I always appreciate and welcome your optimistic words of encouragement.
But for me the time has come and gone as far as speaking or writing Spanish. I will never do more than study and read it to improve my mind.
I would much rather concentrate on painting and piano - and blogging.
thanks, Ticker
JC - Ok. I have put the beautiful and expressive poem Beauty from RW
Emerson's Conduct of Life on my poetry study list.
But right now could you tell me what SEYD stands for. I googled it to no avail.
Thanks, JC, for responding to my last night's despondency through poetry with poetry of your own.
No...1. Used as a title and form of address for a male dignitary
ala: "G_d"...
...again, there's an underlying current of "activity" (vice passivity) to the poem.
Found it!
Then the term SYED would fit Syed Ahmed Khan as he was an educator, writer and politician in his time. That would be the same time period, if memory serves me correctly, that Emerson lived.
It does not appear that the two ever met but with Syed's involvement with India's independence he was sure to have read of him or even read his work.
Just speculation.
All right, Ticker! Way to go.
Now if I ever get back to study that poem, I will know who
SYED is.
Ticker - Do you have a poem that you would like me to Post?
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